Hurricane Katrina played with family ties

SOUTH BEND Â? Ronda Dool and Mary Luchowski giggle and find so much in common that even they wonder about it.

Â?We tease about it all the time,Â? says Luchowski. Â?Maybe weÂ?re sisters.Â?

TheyÂ?ve gone beyond the roles of Hurricane Katrina evacuee and charitable person Â? and even camped in the Smokies together.

They met after Katrina, one year ago Tuesday, soaked DoolÂ?s Mississippi home with stormwater and lit a desire in Luchowski to help those who were stranded.

Â?It could not have worked out better,Â? Luchowski says. Â?IÂ?m so glad we did it.Â?

Dool says sheÂ?s staying here for good.

The stories of evacuees who sought refuge in the South Bend area range from sweet to sad. Many returned to their home areas, either homesick or unable to make it here.

Last September, Luchowski and her husband prayed hard that theyÂ?d find a family to put in the two-bedroom rental house they owned off of Auten Road, where theyÂ?d placed furniture and offered the first six months of rent for free.

They were tickled to find Dool.

Dool immediately landed a full-time job with her old employer, Wal-Mart, at a local store. And Luchowski nudged a car dealer to let her have a used Ford Explorer for $2,000 Â? a lot less than it was worth.

Dool has kept LuchowskiÂ?s help to a minimum in spite of the times when DoolÂ?s health wouldnÂ?t let her work. She lives with a weakened immune system after a kidney transplant in 1994 and a bout with cancer in 2003.

Dool endured a mild heart attack in February. But in April, she and Luchowski took a five-mile hike in the Smokies to see a waterfall.

Â?Ronda had not been on a vacation since she was a kid,Â? Luchowski says of the trip, Â?and I was so ready to get away from the husband and kids.Â?

They first drove to Mobile, Ala., to check on DoolÂ?s grandmother.

They hope to travel to Oklahoma in September to see WillieÂ?s buddy and see where Dool was born.

A bit of DoolÂ?s family separated again when her son Nolen returned to Mississippi to work. But her two daughters, 21 and 26, have moved up, and the youngest of them gave birth to a boy on Aug. 19.

Â?I love having them with me,Â? Dool says.

Caron Long jumped on a bus Aug. 21 and headed back to New Orleans, says her 29-year-old son, Rick Lee Long.

He was sad to see her go.

HeÂ?d finally tracked her down two years ago, employing a private detective many years after Child Protective Services in Houston took him from LongÂ?s custody.

She migrated here after the storm and stayed with her son and got to know his three kids.

Â?There were a few times when that wasnÂ?t perfect,Â? he says. Â?But when you are trying to rebuild a relationship, you have some good and some bad.Â?

She was excited to land a modest apartment in Mishawaka, but she couldnÂ?t afford the bills that came with it, her son says. So she left.

Out of the 12 public housing units in South Bend that were filled with evacuees, only four still have evacuees. Some couldnÂ?t adjust to the weather or living here, says Tonya Robinson, public housing manager for the South Bend Housing Authority.

Lisa Robbins, who led the drive to bring two buses of evacuees up here, says she stays in touch with the few who remain and recently gathered back-to-school backpacks for the kids.

Melody Heintzelman feels good about helping an evacuated family. She also feels burned.

SheÂ?d stocked one of her rental homes on Huey Street with appliances and furniture, pulling donations from other folks in the community.

The Compton family moved in from New Orleans, and she kept her promise to do whatever she could to help them survive, going so far as to pick up inhalers for the mom, Jacqueline Compton, who has asthma and cerebral palsy.

But the needs could have been too much for the parents and their four kids, ages 4 to 10. HeintzelmanÂ?s friend, Alesia Teague, is a rental agent, but she served more like a social worker finding help for their troubles. Ray and Jacqueline Compton had their arguments, leading to a couple of visits by the cops last fall, according to South Bend police reports. But early this year, the couple renewed their wedding vows.

The Comptons moved out this spring, alarmed after a shooting victim knocked on their door, pleaded for shelter, then collapsed in their doorway. The victim survived.

The family left garbage, soiled carpet, cockroaches and a battered porch that Heintzelman is still cleaning up to a tune of $1,500.

Ray Compton says he paid a guy to pick up some of their junk in the house after they moved out.

Â?I appreciate everything theyÂ?ve done for us,Â? Ray Compton says. Â?IÂ?m looking for a happy and peaceful life. It takes some time for things to get where you want them to be. If the road ainÂ?t that smooth, I got to keep going Â?til it gets better.Â?

Teague still tries to work with the familyÂ?s needs.

The family received a letter last week from county health officials that their 4-year-old son Master has a high lead level in his blood. He was tested as part of his entry into Head Start preschool this fall. Teague recalls another one of the sons also had an elevated lead level earlier this year.

The Comptons now are staying in a home across from the Martin Luther King Center, where the kids like to play. A business lady next door says theyÂ?re nice folks and sheÂ?s happy to help.

Their housekeeping could be a lot better, Ray Compton agrees. But he says heÂ?s constantly distracted by a wife who has medical needs and his kids, including Master, who is constantly playing with anything his hands can touch.

Heintzelman doubts sheÂ?ll go all out to help a family like she did with this one. Rather, sheÂ?ll do the little things she has all along for her tenants Â? whether itÂ?s passing along free tickets to a baseball game or buying a holiday meal for a tenant.